Best Practices/Countertop Installs, Part II
6. As soon as a piece is set in place, look underneath it.
After placement, you need to verify that the bottom of the piece consistently touches the cabinet face frame or plywood sub deck. If it doesn’t, a shim needs to be placed in any gap while the pieces are leveled and set permanently.
It’s never okay for any piece of countertop to “float” during the installation process. I’ve seen floating ends and corners of stone cracked off before being supported, or when someone took five and leaned on it. This is an especially painful reversal, since the piece was inevitably the right size and worked perfectly before the damage.
The best practice is to have the entire countertop run shimmed into plane prior to any stone being set. In an ideal world, where the back of each slab is honed flat, this works great. As it is, the wavy bottom side of a granite slab is going to determine how and where you need to shim.
Don’t take for granted that since you shimmed up the “low” spots, you can also remove your sink saver as soon as the piece is in place. Look underneath as soon as you set a piece, and you can avoid a stupid mistake.
7. Never slide two pieces of stone together without a removable buffer.
One of the most-common mistakes of a rookie installer is sliding two pieces of stone together too quickly and breaking off the front corner of the stone at the seam. This is an easily avoidable error: Simply place a buffer in-between the pieces as they’re slid together.
I like to use a corrugated-plastic “For Sale” sign to separate the pieces. The durable material will give you just about the right gap to apply a bead of flowing seam adhesive.
Make it a standard practice for your installers to use suction cups to move stone in the horizontal position. A suction cup will give them much more control than trying to move a countertop by grabbing the front edge or the inside of a cutout opening.
8. Plane is imperative, level is a luxury.
Stone countertops need to be set in a single plane. This is especially true when a seam connects two pieces that turn a corner; if the pieces aren’t in the same plane, you can’t level the seam.
On a straight run of seamed countertops, a beginner’s mistake is to set and seam two pieces without verifying that they’re in plane. When the backsplash is set on the counters and there’s a nice gap in the middle or end of one piece, or the backsplash high-centers like a teeter totter, it’s time to start over.
Before applying seam adhesive, always check the plane of the pieces. I encourage trainees in my classes to place a piece of backsplash across the seam to verify the plane, and leave it on while gluing the seam. Any adjustments made during the seaming process that affect plane are instantly recognizable and can be corrected.
There is a visual element to this exercise as well. A raised snack bar with seams has to be in perfect plane, or any reflection that spans the seam will appear “broken” due to the deflection of the light. If Ms. Jones has a modern kitchen with lots of windows, it’s imperative to concentrate on plane when setting her tops.
When your stone countertops are replacing laminate or solid surface in a residential remodel, level is sometimes difficult to achieve without shimming the new countertops well off the top of the face frame. Ms. Jones might not like this, which is why it’s important to show her the necessary shims prior to gluing the tops in place, and explaining her options. As an installer, you need to set the pieces in plane, but you can set her counters out-of-level if it means they’ll sit closer to the top of cabinets and leave less of a gap.
Once I need to shim above a quarter-inch, I’m calling in the homeowner to make the decision. If the countertops are going to be level, there are two choices – call in a carpenter to reset the cabinets, or cover the gap with a molding.
Cabinet setters are usually pretty cool about making adjustments to cabinets they didn’t originally set. Be ready for conflict when the cabinets are new, and the installers were too lazy to check the slope of the floor. Make sure your measuring level looks more expensive than theirs.
9. Seam adhesive is for looks, not for strength.
The install method I teach is aimed at removing all the internal stress from a countertop prior to applying seam adhesive. In other words, the stone needs to sit securely without any glue.
Relying on glue to keep a countertop in a certain position means there’ll always be stress within the stone working against the bond of the glue. This could eventually lead to the seam failing, or the stress working out at cutouts for sinks or stoves.
Completely leveling a seam prior to adhesive application means there’ll be no stress on the glue and the seam should remain intact for the life of the countertop.
I use the plain, old-fashioned razorblade to test the readiness of a seam for glue. It’s not ready for the seam setter and glue application until I can pass a razor over the seam without the steel edge catching on either piece of stone.
Remember to babysit a seam until the adhesive cures. I’ve walked away from a seam too early, only to have it shift slightly as it cured. The seam adhesive acts as a lubricant between the two pieces until fully cured, so always have a sample pool of adhesive to use as a test for the progress of the cure. Once the sample pool is hardened, the seam should be stable enough to leave alone.
10. The job is only complete when you’re back at the shop.
I’ve made the majority of my dumb mistakes at the very end of an install. Measure the last piece of backsplash three times, just to be sure. Double- and triple-check the spacing between faucet holes; Ms. Jones doesn’t like it when her left handle is 4” from the spout and her right handle is 5” away.
Use a guide for drilling holes in stone. If your bit walks when you try to freehand a hole, you’ve no one to blame but yourself. Also, make sure the core of the faucet cutout falls out of the bit before you bring the grinder back over the sink. If the core falls in the sink, it can easily dent the steel or chip the enamel.
Draw the outlet box on the front and the back of the stone before you try to cut it – and verify the measurements. There’s nothing like cutting through only to discover your lines didn’t match up.
In short, remain focused and on task throughout the entire job. The time to relax is well after you’ve completed every install task correctly.
All training is expensive and time-consuming, and can be difficult to fit into a busy schedule. But, for every top that’s not broken because of a well-trained employee, you’ll get a profitable return from your educational investment.
Take training seriously, and you’ll see long-term benefits for your company.
Jason Nottestad, a 15-year veteran of the stone industry, is National Customer Service Manager for VT Stone Surfaces; he’s now on his third year of “The Installer” columns for Stone Business. He can be reached at JNottestad@vtindustries.com.
© 2010 Western Business Media
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